I haven't written off the chain altogether, as I haven't had this experience with them all, but I was so annoyed by one Hair Cuttery stylist in one of their PA salons that I am reluctant to return.

I had intended to get my hair cut before going to visit friends but DH wanted to get going so he convinced me to go with our friend once I got there while he and the boys hung out with the hubby. Since wife wanted to get a haircut, we went. I told them all I wanted was a trim, but once I got to the hairwashing tubs, the girl started in.

"Do you want your eyebrows waxed?" "No thanks, not today.""How about your hair colored or permed?" "No thanks, not today. I'm with a friend and don't want to hold her up with a long process like that." "Would you like me to straighten your hair when I dry it out?" I kind of laughed at this because my hair's naturally straight. Maybe it has a slight bit of wave and bounce to it, but it doesn't need straightening, so I just told her "No thanks, just a trim." It was just annoying how she kept pushing for me to have more done so she could get a bigger tip.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

Some years ago, a local department store advertised a bra fitting, so I made an appointment. When I got there, the employee whipped out a measuring tape and tried to measure me right there in the middle of the store aisle with customers walking by.

I booked a flight to California with them because they were uber-cheap. I soon found out why. They called me *twice* to tell me my flight had been canceled/rescheduled. Not a big deal, as I was able to book another or fly at the rescheduled time.

Then there was a Five. Hour. Delay. on the tarmac before we could take off. No explanation. They did give out complimentary (nonalcoholic) drinks as compensation during the wait, but since we were discouraged from using the bathroom, it wasn't what you'd call the best of perks.

Once in the air (finally!), it was like pulling teeth to get a simple request granted by the flight attendants. I'm asking for a pillow, not the freakin' moon!

I would boycott them, if they still existed.

BTW, I realize airlines are doing things now like charging for pillows, but this was 1999.

I was on one of their flights once (NY to Paris, so not short) and the flight attendant informed a family of Hassidic Jews that their kosher meals had not been supplied. She could, however, offer them some ham and cheese sandwiches which had been stocked for the crew. Maybe her heart was in the right place, but still...

#3. I had a dentist who completely instilled such fear of dentists in me 17 years ago, that I still have trouble to this day going to them. I was five months pregnant with my daughter (who turns 17 next month, WAHHH! where did the years go? ) and had to go in because a tooth was bothering me. It turned out, I needed a root canal. So, the day of the root canal I go in and he shoots me with novacaine. Shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong! Turned out, because I was preggers, he didn't give me a full dose. Then he took the little metal brush that they use to clean out the nerve and started digging. I about came out of the chair! He did this on and off for almost 20 mins, telling me oh, it just needs to take effect - oh, you're just being super sensitive, all you are really feeling is the pressure. Meanwhile, tears are streaming down my face (I was young and timid back then) and I'm hurting like the dickens. He told me I should be ready now, since he'd given me a little more novacaine due to my complaints. This time when he hit the nerve AGAIN, I didn't jump out of the seat. I grabbed him by his tie, pulled his nose down to mine and looked into his face which was like this and said in a cold, deadly voice, We are NOT going to hurt each other any more today, are WE? (I admit, between hormones and pain, I was not at my best and was more than a little ashamed of myself afterwards - but at the time, I wanted to aim for a lower and infinitely more vulnerable spot on a man) He had a look of abject fear as he tried to ease himself back and picked up the novacaine again. He finally got me numbed up and was very careful about making sure I was before he tried going back in with that dang brush thing. It was finally over. I went somewhere else for the crown work.

But, that incident scarred me for life and I avoid dentists like the plague. Before I go to the dentist now, I have a panic attack and I'm pasty in the waiting room. They don't knock me out for a cleaning, and yes, I have broken fingernails in the arms of their chairs from the effort of holding myself in there so I don't bolt out the door, but when I had to have work done, they gave me the sedation pills and did most everything at the same time. Thank goodness the office is well aware of my phobias and they work with me and are very gentle in dealing with me.

#4. A chain mechanic/auto parts store with the initials of PB. I took my vehicle to them because I had a *horrid* grinding sound coming from under the hood on the right side. They took a look, told me my brakes, rotors and calipers were all bad and I'd need over $800 in repairs. I took the car home in tears, because my then hubs was a grunt in the military and I worked at a daycare (we had NO money!). I called my father (hubs was deployed at the time), who told me to crank it and see if I could see anything grinding in there. I went out and stood there and watched the engine run for a few minutes and sure enough, I heard the grinding and saw where it was coming from. The air conditioning compressor had somehow had something separate in it, and it was grinding together hard enough to produce sparks! I unplugged it and never had a problem with the grinding again. Had a friend check the brakes and rotors and they were perfectly fine. Of course, I never had air conditioning in that car again, but when you pay $300 for a car, you can't gripe a whole lot!

I have *never* had Novocaine work for a root canal (I'll not reveal how many I've had, suffice to say, more than one). If you have, please let me know how much was required. I *always* know when the nerve is being touched.

I've had 4 root canals - 2 of which were on a broken tooth in an attempt to save it - I lost count after 14 shots. now - I'm kinda weird - I have an unusual nerve pathway in my palate , plus - I metabolize novacaine ( and alcohol by the way ) like CRAZY. It wears off very quickly. I had to find a dentist who specialized in pain management.

Mom used to get bruises that would last YEARS. As in, bruises that were 7 years old. A (obviously male) doctor told her it was "typical female bruising." Yeah, he got knocked off the list.

........................What IS "typical female bruising"?

It's the bruising you get from bumping into furniture when vaccuuming in high heels and a skirt, don'tcha know.

The first place I'm never shopping in again:

1.) Sears Canada (Ontario). Never, ever again are we going to buy from them. And considering that we have a house in need of upgrades, a new furnace, a new stove, central air, windows, floors etc I really don’t think they care about customer loyalty…

I bought a couch from them 8 years ago from an Outlet store. The couch is great. So we bought a new fridge from the Outlet to replace the 30 year old Kenmore fridge that suddenly died (it was summer, you can imagine!). 10 months in, the fridge starts to make noises. We call for a repair, the repair guy finds that the door is fried (water, light etc), and things are all busted up in the innards. Commence our personal trip to hell…

It took 9 months, 4 wrong doors, a dozen visits from repair guys and multiple phone messages of appointments that never appeared on anyone’s schedule to get the fridge functioning again. Our calls were redirected to Montreal, where we’d be assigned to an exclusively French speaking CSR who would get frustrated with us because they couldn’t understand us and vice versa. We had an extra but wrong type door on the front step for months until we put it out for scrap, because Sears had no record of it. We’d call and be disconnected after 58 minutes on hold. The problem was “solved” on their computers, and no longer under warranty even though the initial problem wasn’t solved, and we were denied an extended warranty because the fridge had to be in good working order to get it. On and on and on!

When the door was finally installed, water began pouring out of the inside of the fridge. I was in tears and wanted to go to a competitor at that point. It turned out that the fridge had been a return that hadn’t been refurbished, just put out of the floor. Everything works now, but we have parts and gadgets and pieces left over that I’ve boxed up JUST IN CASE.

A couple of months into this fiasco, my parents gifted us a stack washer-dryer, as the 30 year old ones that came with the house turned out to be shells (another story for another time). Sears was going to deliver and set up. It is important to note that my mom worked for Sears in the ‘70’s, and has had almost exclusively fantastic experiences with them in her province. The delivery guys brought the units down to the basement and headed back to their truck. I asked when they were going to set it up. Nope, they said, not us, you’re on your own. I showed them the receipt from otherprovince that indicated set-up was included in the delivery service. Cue swearing and stomping, I kid you not. One guy finally stomps down to the basement with me and demands that I pull off the old hoses, as he can’t by law do that or some nonsense. They won’t budge, so he tells me to call the store and reschedule a hook-up.

I call the store and ask for a supervisor to complain. No, no supervisor is in today, no no one can help you with this, these are union guys, you know so you have to excuse their behaviour (I work for a Union, and if we ever spoke to the public like this guy, we’d be toast). A lady finally came on the line from the appliance department and told me it was easy to hook up the washer-dryer, she’d done it herself enough times. I asked her how I was supposed to stack them, and the said she didn’t know and she had to go now.

So there I am in the basement, with the instruction book, puzzled because none of the packing and safety parts are in the washer or dryer. DF finally hooks them up when he comes home, and we discover that the brand new washer and dryer are refurbished (rust in dryer, water in washer). Sears denies this, and we are so frustrated at this point we just accept that the units work and we’re happy.

A few months later, while the fridge is STILL broken, Sears calls and asks if I want to buy an extended warranty plan for the washer and dryer. I tell them I will if they will fix the fridge. There’s silence, then the CSR says that our fridge is fixed, the call is closed, and there’s no warranty on the fridge but they’ll charge us $90 for a repair visit. My reply was a mix of English and bad French and I guess my point finally got across, because he said that he’d add to our file that we were unhappy with Sears’ service. Merci beaucoup!

The fridge now works, the unwarrantied dryer shuts down unexpectedly, and our closest Sears Outlet store just closed out of the blue. DF says they sold one too many bad fridges. Later I am going to post about Canadian Tire Auto Centres…

There was a Jiffy Lube that I went to that was okay- they tried to push stuff, of course, but stopped when you said no. Then they closed so I tried a different location. They told me that it was time for me to get my radiator fluid flushed. I said "I just had a radiator put in 5,000 miles ago. I don't need one*. " Of course I did, because they said so!

I haven't been back there since.

There is a little independently owned restaurant within walking distance of my apartment. I tried it soon after they opened and while the food wasn't too bad I was unimpressed by their service. I thought well, it's new- give them a few months. So I waited 3 months or so. Service was worse the second time. I ordered the special of the day- a brat. It took 25 minutes to get, and the people behind me who had also ordered hot food got theirs in five. The explanation I got "we didn't know how long it would take to make". The special of the day, and they have no idea. I know very well what the issues were: I was getting my food to go (no tip) and the people behind me were fun young hipsters that they were having fun talking to.

Really it's a shame because they are so convenient, but I don't go to a restaurant to be treated like an unwanted fifth wheel.

*when I needed new tires I went back to the garage that put in my transmission and explained that I drive about 5000 miles a year and never leave the city. The mechanic said "so what you're saying is you want the cheapest tires we have". Heh. Yes, that is what I am saying.

Best Buy- I know my stepmother has had such a bad experience with them that she won't go back. I've been luckier, and have gotten some blatant honesty that is refreshing. When I got my digital decoder for the TV I went there and they had it beautifully streamlined so that you could be in and out in 5 minutes if you wanted and there was no line. I asked the employee which digital antenna I should get and he said "I'd go with the cheapest one. You don't really get any better reception with the more expensive ones."

When I was in college this doctor told me I had PCOS. He didn't actually run any tests, just decided I must have it because I was overweight and had irregular periods (although mine were more frequent than normal, not less frequent like most people with PCOS). He casually told me that I didn't ovulate and would have a hard time getting pregnant in the future. This was pretty devastating because I'd always wanted to have kids. I read up on PCOS and noticed that I didn't seem to have most of the symptoms - no acne, no hirsutism, more frequent rather than less frequent periods - but I still accepted the diagnosis because he was the doctor. Until after college when I could no longer stay on my parents' health insurance policy and had to apply for my own. I was denied because of PCOS and decided to get a second opinion. The new doctor actually - gasp! - ran tests and found that I did not have cysts on my ovaries and my hormone levels and glucose tolerance were totally normal. She said, "I don't know what to tell you...you don't have PCOS and in fact there's absolutely nothing wrong with you." So I got my insurance. And when I did decide to get pregnant, I conceived right away with no difficulty. My mom still goes to this doctor and when she mentioned to him that I don't have PCOS, his response was, "oh."

Logged

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. -George Washington Carver

My vision insurance changed at work so I had to find a different eye doctor. I chose a place that had a few different locations and made an appt. I showed up and filled out the paperwork, and saw that they had quite a few questions asking about whether I had any interest in Botox. When I took my ppwk back up to the desk they informed me that they weren't familiar with my husbands insurance so they were just going to use mine (what???). I should've walked out the door right then.

The whole thing was a disaster from the beginning to the end, and I will never go back there again. They called a few months later to see if I wanted to re-order contacts and I told them I would never go back there again. Between the insurance problem and trying to talk me into botox shots I thought they were a joke.

I have *never* had Novocaine work for a root canal (I'll not reveal how many I've had, suffice to say, more than one). If you have, please let me know how much was required. I *always* know when the nerve is being touched.

If I remember right, it took six. But then, its been quite a while. I've slept since then, so I might not remember correctly

I had to get a tire repaired at a chain tire shop as I ran over a nail. Unfortunately, the tire couldn't be patched right as the damage was much worse than anticipated, and the tire place showed me a patch job wouldn't do. I had to get some more money to pay for a new tire & my car was on a hoist, plus no one was available to drive me to my credit union to withdraw extra cash. I walked a block to a Chase Bank to use an ATM to get the rest of the money needed. I placed my atm card in the machine, and the machine shut down then restarted but would not spit out my card. I went inside and the employees said no way to get the card back out of the machine, and flat out refused to give me any help when I explained why I had to use their machine.

Lucky for me, I was able to call up my credit union, who transferred some extra funds to my credit card account and made them available immediately when I explained my situation & gave them the details to do so. I was able to get my tire without an issue. The credit union issued me a new atm card within 2 weeks of the day's events.

Not to totally defend Chase bank, but there may not have been anything they could do. I managed a bank in a grocery store a few years ago, and we had zero access to the ATM. A security firm filled and emptied it, we couldn't get into it if we wanted to, no keys no codes. If you didn't have a chase account there probably was nothing the teller could do for you other than apologize and offer to open you a chase account. I hope he/she offered you a phone to call your credit union though.

They didn't offer to allow me to ring my credit union from their phone. Good thing I had a cell phone with me.

They should've said something like "when we get someone here who can check the machine, then we can get your card out of it & we can take your details to contact you back when the card can be retrieved." or "I am so sorry that happened to you, can we help you with calling your financial institution so you can get the money you need for your emergency situation". One of those would've been a better response compared to what was said to me in a curt manner & an apology that was very matter of fact and short not sincere.

Not to totally defend Chase bank, but there may not have been anything they could do. I managed a bank in a grocery store a few years ago, and we had zero access to the ATM. A security firm filled and emptied it, we couldn't get into it if we wanted to, no keys no codes. If you didn't have a chase account there probably was nothing the teller could do for you other than apologize and offer to open you a chase account. I hope he/she offered you a phone to call your credit union though.

I've never been a big Sears person, but I had a horrible experience with Kmart once. I don't usually like their inventory anyway, but I needed to buy all new bathroom stuff when I moved across country by myself for the first time, and I wanted Martha Stewart stuff.

I went online and ordered the full inventory needed for a main bathroom in blue and yellow: shower curtain, two floor mats, bath towels, hand towels, wash cloths, etc. I didn't bother ordering speedy delivery because, living by myself, I didn't need it right away. I had a full two months before I knew I would have guests, and the site promised delivery in 2-3 weeks. Five weeks later I had nothing. I called, and they told me my delivery would be there in a week. One week later I received a box full of towels: pink towels, cream towels, blue (not my shade, though) towels, but nothing that I ordered.

I called again. They said they would personally arrange to have a delivery service pick up the towels; I would just need to sign the form they would bring agreeing to pay to return their towels. I'm afraid that won't be possible. I'm not paying to return a shipment because your company sent the wrong thing. They agreed to pay for it, and the delivery guy showed up the next day. Then they said it would be another week before I would get my stuff. That would make my delivery right around the time my guests were coming, so I agreed. A week later I received a few pieces of what I ordered arrived, but less than half of the total inventory. I called again. By this time I had spent over four hours on the phone with them, and I still hadn't received my order. Thirty minutes later, they said they would have the rest of my shipment there in 2-3 weeks.

Guests came and went, still no towels. I gave up and called to cancel my order. I would have just gone to the store, but I lived out in the boondocks; literally it was over an hour to drive to the nearest Walmart, and this is in upstate NY where it was snowing every.single.day. and I wasn't used to it enough to want to drive that far by myself - particularly when I didn't know anyone well enough to ask them for help if something went wrong. Cancelling my order took another two hours on the phone. At no point during any of this would they let me talk to a supervisor (I knew their CS had been outsourced; I didn't realize until much later that they would never actually put a supervisor on the phone, so I spent a good 2 hours collectively on hold just waiting for a supervisor that would never come).

They said they would arrange for a delivery person to pick up my box, but at that point I had used what I had received. They insisted that they couldn't cancel the order if they couldn't get their towels back (because separating the individual prices would have been too much work apparently). Then they charged my card a second time rather than refunding my money. I got the second charge refunded fairly quickly, but I couldn't get them to refund my money for the stuff that never came. I called and called, but we couldn't get it worked out. I have no idea what happened, but two weeks later a box showed up with the rest of my order, and then three weeks after that a delivery person arrived out of the blue to pick up my "return order."

I ordered a fruit basket to be delivered to my sister's house for Christmas from a company called Figi's. I scheduled it to go out in late December. I don't recall why exactly - this was many years ago - but apparently after I'd paid and they said they could deliver by Christmas Day, they turned around and said it wouldn't be there by then. I called customer service multiple times and sent many letters, trying to get it resolved, but it never was. She was happy with the fruit, it just didn't get there by Christmas

I told Figi's in my final letter that they had better never contact me again because I would never shop there ever. They still continue to send me catalogs several times a year